Australian Gran Prix: Pirelli’s first results

The opening of the season has seen a great deal of speculation. Certain drivers are clearly voicing their concerns about wear on Pirelli tyres during a race, while others show encouraging optimism. Australia was a good opportunity to demonstrate that Pirelli was still in the game…

Some people were expecting an avalanche of criticism to come out of this first grand prix, but instead a veritable shower of praise was poured on the Pirelli brand. Event winner Sébastien Vettel, pointed out the tyres’ exceptional handling during the race and Franz Tost, Toro Rosso’s team manager, expressed his approval for all the work done by Pirelli’s engineers. Other drivers, including Michael Schumacher, have expressed a favourable opinion after this full-size trial.

Doubts about the endurance of Pirelli’s tyres were quickly dismissed by the overall performances recorded, especially that of Sauber driver Sergio Perez who only made one pit stop, managing a series of 35 laps using the same set of tyres.

Pirelli, fully satisfied with its comeback to Formula 1, admitted, however, that the coloured lettering that was supposed to identify different types of rubber, were not particularly visible. For this grand prix, 2 types of rubber were available, hard (silver lettering) and soft (yellow lettering).